Mayo defeated by ruthless Rossies

ALL-IRELAND U20B HURLING SEMI-FINAL

ROSCOMMON 2-30

MAYO 1-10

Hastings Insurance MacHale Park

The gulf in physical power and strength was all too evident at MacHale Park on Monday afternoon as Roscommon overwhelmed Mayo in a one-sided All-Ireland semi-final clash, comfortably securing their passage through to a Croke Park date with Down later this month.

While Mayo have overtaken their easterly neighbours in the senior hurling world in recent years, Roscommon continue to produce that bit more at underage level, and Mayo were always likely to struggle to compete with the guests who fielded 12 players from their Nickey Rackard Cup panel.

However even by that measure, Mayo manager Brian Finn was bitterly disappointed that his players were so far adrift.

“Physically we weren’t strong enough. It wasn’t a match, we just couldn’t keep with them” was his blunt summary after the game.

“I can’t make any excuses, our lads did as much as they could but they were stronger and fitter than us and we couldn’t stick with the pace of it.

“There were a lot of young lads out there, they’ll learn from that, regroup and go again certainly. Some have come through from U-17 last year and they have two more years in the grade, but it was men against boys in a lot of places” he said.

One of those ‘men’ was centre forward Seán Canning, a first cousin of former Galway hurler Joe, and a devastatingly powerful runner with the ball. He produced a man of the match display, firing 1-6 in total, including a goal in the 15^th minute that put nine points between the sides and left Mayo chasing shadows.

A fine early score from distance from Killian Gallagher and another point from Eoin Ryan, one where there might even have been a hint of a goal chance had he laid off to Ronan Fallon, left Mayo 0-3 to 0-2 ahead after the early exchanges.

Roscommon were boosted by a goal from Brian Mannion, who just outreached Brian O’Donovan to get a touch on a dropping ball and set up an easy finish, but a point from Colm Enright in response proved that Mayo were still capable of causing problems for the Rossies.

Then it all went wrong as Roscommon scored 1-4 on the spin, their goal coming from Canning after he scythed through the heart of the defence, and it became clear that this had the potential to be a long and difficult afternoon.

Liam Óg Coyle and Mannion got the scoreboard moving, and as soon as Colm Enright scrambled a close range goal for the hosts, Roscommon snatched momentum right back with a run of points before half-time, including a nice strike on the run by Rory Lyons just before the break.

Mayo mustered up an element of resistance in the first five minutes of the second half, with just one point scored at either end to make it 2-14 to 1-7, but the next 25 minutes or so was a procession, with Roscommon knocking over 15 of the next 16 scores.

Late points from Enright and Killian Gallagher were the least that Mayo deserved for an honest effort, but one that never looked like yielding a positive result.

“I’m disappointed for them on the day, that result is not a reflection of who they are, and it’s very hard to take a beating like that” Finn admitted, ruefully.

ROSCOMMON

Jack Ryan; Oisín Flynn, James Dillon, Tomás Tiernan; Jimmy Hoey, Tommy Fleming, Micheál Hussey (0-1); Liam Óg Coyle (0-3), Keelan Ryan (0-1); Paddy Fallon (0-12, 0-5f, 0-1 sideline), Seán Canning (1-6), Rory Coyle; Brian Mannion (1-3), Gavin Meares (0-1), Rory Lyons (0-3)

Subs used: Conor Kelly for R Coyle (44), Daniel Bolger for Tiernan (44), Cathal Geraghty for Meares (48), Jack Tully for Dillon (48), Aidan Hoare for L Óg Coyle (51)

MAYO:

Brian O’Donovan; Aidan McGing, Conor Ketterick, Anthony Rowland; Killian Gallagher (0-2), Matthew Connor, Jake Glavey; Fiachra Glavey, Seán McGhee; Seán Geraghty, Eoghan Ketterick, Eoin Ryan (0-1); Colm Enright (1-2), Ronan Fallon (0-4f), James Byrne (0-1

Subs used: James Greally for E Ketterick (27), Micheál Richardson for J Glavey (44), Lucas Kenny for Byrne (44), Cathal Guilfoyle for Geraghty (44), Oisín Mulroy for Rowland (50)

Referee: Michael Connolly (Sligo).